Thankful cont.

My other two blessings!

Thankful

One of my blessings this Thanksgiving!

Cooking with Julia – Noga Bars (aka Granola Bars)

Yesterday, at breakfast, Julia was explaining to me how to make chocolate granola bars and I thought I should share:

part 1

And here’s further clarification on a couple of the details:

Part 2

Florida October 2012–Part 2

The second part of our Florida vacation was spent in Vero Beach, FL visiting Andrew’s parents.  While we were also visited by rain and lots of wind from Hurricane Sandy we kept busy and the kids ended up having a great time!

Julia and Benj created their own choo-choo train!

Playing together!!

We picked out and carved pumpkins:

We fed giraffes and met lorakeets at the zoo:

We watched the sand cranes in Grandma and Grandpa’s backyard:

We even got in some putting (Julia actually golfed 3 days in a row!) and a walk on the beach!

And, of course, there was plenty of ice cream (because it’s not really a vacation until there is ice cream)!

Florida October 2012–Part 1

We spent the last week in October in Florida, enjoying a couple of days in Orlando and then a visit with Andrew’s parents in Vero Beach.  It was a great trip and while the weather wasn’t exactly what we had hoped for, we managed to pack in a lot of fun.

We started in Orlando at a great Marriott hotel that was right across the street from Sea World.  We had not originally planned on staying there but fate was on our side because the hotel was fabulous.  It had a great pool area complete with a little water park for the kids!  Julia and Benjamin spent most of two afternoons splashing around.

It took Julia until the second day to try out the waterslide but once she started she was hooked! 

Julia’s first waterslide!

While in Orlando we also visited Downtown Disney and Sea World.  We were amazed at the Lego store in Downtown Disney – just incredible sculptures made entirely from Legos, like this one of Woody and Buzz Lightyear:

We also had a special treat because there is a Babycakes bakery there.  Babycakes makes only vegan (so egg-free) and gluten-free baked goods.  It made me so happy to be able to go in somewhere and tell Julia that she could chose whatever treat she wanted.  And she thoroughly enjoyed her brownie cupcake with orange icing!

Sea World was also a hit.  We all loved the dolphin show (Julia and Benjamin both sat mesmerized the entire time), walking through the shark tunnel, and seeing sting rays up close.  It was a busy couple of days but a really nice break and a great way to start our vacation!